The Cardinal's Conspiracy

The Cardinal's Conspiracy is a 1909 short film directed by D.W. Griffith and Frank Powell and produced by the Biograph Company. It was released in the United States on July 12, 1909. Under current U.S. copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain. This rule applies regardless of renewal status or the nationality of the production. As a 1909 release, the copyright for this film expired 75 years after its publication (under the 1976 Act) and was not extended beyond the current 95-year maximum term for pre-1978 works because that term ended in 2004. Furthermore, many Biograph shorts from this era were preserved via the 'Paper Print Collection' at the Library of Congress and are widely available in the public domain for research and commercial reuse. There are no legal mechanisms by which a 1909 production could still be under copyright protection in the United States as of 2024.